


Help Me Make It Through the Night

by susanowa (panickyintheuk)



Series: Misc bingo fills [1]
Category: Marvel 3490
Genre: F/M, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 13:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7642444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panickyintheuk/pseuds/susanowa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her baby was finally sleeping through the night, and she wasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Help Me Make It Through the Night

**Author's Note:**

> For bingo square S4, 'Trouble sleeping'.
> 
> Left it deliberately ambiguous at to whether this is set in the same 'verse as 'If I Were Your Woman', but you'll notice they both have titles from songs that Gladys Knight performed! So, make of that what you will.

Tasha started awake to the sound of -- nothing.

Steve reached out in the darkness and put a hand on her arm. "Relax," he said. "She's asleep."

Tasha groaned. Her baby was finally sleeping through the night, and she wasn't. She'd always had trouble sleeping anyway, trouble switching off her brain as she lay in the dark -- either because it was working on something, or because it couldn't let go of some awful, niggling thought. Throughout her life she had variously turned to alcohol, sex and obsessive work to handle it. Of course, it had been a while since she had considered alcohol a solution to any of her problems, and at this point sex was beginning to feel like a distant memory, too. That left work, but Steve wasn't likely to let her up without a fight. And anyway, she wasn't sure she could be trusted with basic algebra right now, let alone anything more complicated than that. Turning off her brain wasn't actually the issue right now -- she frankly couldn't remember the last time her brain had been operating at full capacity. After the last six months, sleep ought to be the easiest thing in the world to sink into. And yet.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" she muttered.

"Not a thing," said Steve. Tasha huffed through her nose. Clearly he was delirious with sleep deprivation, because that wasn't true even at the best of times.

"Maybe I should just go and check on her," she said.

"No," said Steve firmly (but quietly), and the comforting hand on her arm became a barrier across her chest. It was actually a little uncomfortable -- her breasts hurt. Didn't that mean it was time for a feed?

"What if she's stopped breathing?" she said.

"I can hear her breathing from here," said Steve. "She's in the same room as us. We can see her. You don't need to get out of bed."

"But --"

"Let me be absolutely clear about this," Steve whispered. "If you go and 'check on her', you will wake her up. If you wake her up, she will start crying. If she starts crying, she will wake up She-Hulk. And if she wakes up She-Hulk, _again_ , I am just going to sit back and watch what happens, because I told you so."

"Jen loves me," Tasha protested.

"No, _I_ love you. And I am telling you to stay in bed, or so help me --"

"This does not feel loving."

"You need to get some sleep. You've been walking around like a zombie."

"Like a Romero zombie?"

"Why the hell do I need to specify what kind of zombie?"

"Well, the 28 Days Later zombies are filled with rage. That would be worrying. I don't feel like I'm filled with rage." Filled with breast milk, maybe.

"I'm starting to feel filled with rage." 

"You're being super mean."

Steve rolled over and pushed himself up on his arms, so he was caging her in -- but not putting any weight on her, thank God, because her breasts were killing her as it was. "I am being cruel to be kind," he said, kissing her on the forehead. "Go to sleep."

"Okay," she said. "Okay." She closed her eyes, and kept them closed until she felt Steve settle down next to her, apparently satisfied.

The baby started crying. Tasha scrambled out of bed, feeling oddly vindicated. Steve groaned and pulled the pillow over his head.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies to anyone with actual kids! I know nothing! I wrote this super quick so I could actually get a bingo, because even though I wrote ten other bingo fills, I was so ridiculously unstrategic it's almost like I didn't WANT to win.
> 
> This was crazy rushed. Please forgive mistakes.
> 
> And as usual, find me @ http://shiningredandgold.tumblr.com/.


End file.
